MAINE: WALDOBOEO' DISTRICT. 63 



W. D. Williamson, who wrote in 1832, gave the following account of Monhegan : 



" Mouhegan Island was in ancient times, witbout exception, tbe most famous one on the sea- 

 board of tbis State. It was tbe land aimed at and first mentioned by the original voyagers and 

 fishermen about these waters, and was so noted a stage for the latter as to be sometimes called a 

 plautatiou. To this the New Plymouth settlers resorted early and frequently to exchange furs for 

 provisions. In 1C2G Abraham Shurte was sent over by Elbridge and Aldsworth to purchase the 

 island of the owner, Abraham Jennings, of Plymouth, for which he gave 50. It is situated 9 miles 

 southerly of George's Islands, 5 leagues east-southeast of Towuseud, and 3 leagues westwardly of 

 Metinic. It contains upward of a thousand acres of good land, has a bold shore on all its sides, a 

 large projection of rocks at its northeastward part, and has one good harbor. On its south side is 

 the Menanah Island, of two acres, distant a cable's length, and the harbor is between the two 

 islands, the entrance into it, on the southwest of Monhegan, being safe and easy. 



"The number of people on the island is between seventy-five and one hundred, who inhabit 

 twelve or fourteen dwelling-houses, and are the owners of the soil, industrious, moral, and well 

 informed. They have a school-house, where their children are educated and religious meetings are 

 attended. Fishing and agriculture are the employments of the men. They own several vessels, 

 and while the more able-bodied arc engaged in the former business at home and in the codfishery 

 on the Grand Banks, the old men and boys cultivate the land, raising good crops, keeping cows, 

 swine, and sheep. 



"The island, though within the county of Lincoln, belongs to no town. It is a democratic com- 

 munity. It has no officers of any kind, not even a justice of the peace. The people's affairs are 

 goveiued and guided by themselves conformably to certain prudential rules and usages which they 

 have mutually established. They have paid one United States direct tax, otherwise they are stran- 

 gers to taxation, except what they pay toward the support of their school."* 



THE FISHERIES SINCE 1820 From a conversation with Mr. Henry T. Studley, cue of the 

 oldest fishermen of the island, Captain Collins gathered the following information relative to the 

 more recent fishing interests of Monhegan : 



As early as 1820 residents of the island commenced building small vessels for use in the fish- 

 eries. This business continued till 1837, since which time little has been done. The two principal 

 builders were Henry Trefethen and Josiah Sterling, these building eighteen vessels, aggregating 

 about 525 tons. Some of the larger vessels built by these parties were engaged in the Grand Bank 

 cod fisheries, while others went to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence for cod and mackerel. Mr Studley 

 estimates that from 1830 to 1840 eight vessels were engaged regularly in the bank fisheries, and 

 that 9,000 quintals of fish were cured yearly on the island. From this time the bank fisheries 

 declined very rapidly, and were soon wholly discontinued. 



The method of "dragging" for mackerel, which has been so extensively employed by the 

 fishermen of the island, was first introduced into the locality by Capt. N. E. Atwood, of Prov- 

 iucetown. In the summer of 1845 he, in company with a brother, came to the island with a 

 "gang" of nets and fished from dories, going out from the shore every night when the weather 

 was suitable. In speaking of his work, he says: "We were gone from home four weeks, and 

 made 890 to a share." Other Cape Cod fishermen joined him the following season, and soon the 

 island fishermen provided themselves with nets and took part in the fishery. In 1859 there were 

 seventeen boats, with two men each, engaged in mackerel dragging from the island. In 1SC2 four 

 purse-seines were bought by the residents and fished from small boats. This method has been 

 fairly successful, and three seines are still owned by the Monhcgau fishermen, who use them dur- 



* Williamson's History of Maine, vol. I, p. 61. 



